


Reminds Me of Childhood Memories

by MagusLibera



Series: Any Happy Stories [2]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M, Father-Son Relationship, First Meetings, Mother-Son Relationship, Parent-Child Relationship, Post-Crisis on Infinite Earths Crossover Event (CW DC TV Universe)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-13
Updated: 2020-01-13
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:54:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22246669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MagusLibera/pseuds/MagusLibera
Summary: After the Crisis, Oliver and Felicity go to get their son back and to introduce him to his baby sister.This can be read as a one-shot.This can be read as an extended version of the final paragraph of SCoM Chapter I.
Relationships: Oliver Queen/Felicity Smoak
Series: Any Happy Stories [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1601401
Comments: 21
Kudos: 145





	Reminds Me of Childhood Memories

**Author's Note:**

> TOMORROW IS THE CRISIS!!!
> 
> So I wrote this, even though I said I didn't think I was going to continue SCoM, but it can be read individually as well.
> 
> Happy Monday!

Oliver survives the Crisis. Of course he does. If being possessed by an omnipotent being does not qualify somebody for a resurrection, then nothing does. And Sara Lance is living proof that there are plenty of ways to be resurrected.

He goes home, he sees his wife again, he holds his daughter as an infant one more time. And then two more, three more, four more, so many more times that he almost loses count. But there is still a huge chunk of his life missing. There is still a gaping hole in their family. Their son is still hundreds of miles away with his grandparents. He still does not know that he has a sister. Their daughter has still never met her brother.

So they start back where they left off. Planning to get their son back. And to somehow do it whilst maintaining the secret of their location and keeping the fact that Oliver is alive under wraps.

William’s grandparents will not even contemplate communicating with Felicity. On one level, it is understandable. Their daughter was William’s mother. For them to begin to consider another woman as his mother too must be difficult for them, especially after losing Samantha. But it is also completely unfair. Whether Felicity shares biology with Will or not, whether she carried and gave birth to him or not, whether she was there for him during his early years or not, she absolutely adores him. Just as much as she loves Mia, she loves her son.

  
It forces their hand, they know that, if Frank and Irene refuse to even _talk_ to Felicity, to even _consider_ letting her see their son, there is no way that they will let Oliver back into his life either. Certainly not after his presumed death. Within a few hours of them rejecting Felicity in the harshest way possible – something particularly inappropriate considering that, to their knowledge, she is a grieving widow – they are packing up their car with all of Mia’s things and they are on their way to Central City. To their son.

*************************

Felicity frets for the entire journey. She worries that it is wrong of them to just show up at the Clayton’s house and force their way back into William’s life. She worries that he will not want to talk to them ever again, he has not been answering their calls for almost a year, after all. She worries that William will think that they replaced him with Mia. Oliver does his best to alleviate her fears, telling her that what they are doing is no more wrong than the Claytons refusing to let them see their son. That William loves her and probably just needs them to prove how much they want him back, that he will understand that Mia was not exactly planned and that she came into existence before he left. That he could never be replaced in their hearts. But deep inside, those exact same fears gnaw away at Oliver’s mind. He worries that he has ruined everything with his decisions.

After three long days in the car, delayed by them not wanting to keep Mia cooped up for too long each day, they pull up at a little bed and breakfast near to the Clayton household. Oliver is eager to go straight to their son, but Felicity reminds him that they have a plan and that they should stick to it, so he first helps her unload everything into their room where he sits playing with Mia to pass the time.

*************************

When the time finally comes, he is shaking with nerves. He has not seen his son in almost a year, something that he has experienced before and thought that he could manage again but this time, he actually knows his son. This time, there has been the possibility that they would _never_ see one another again. It has been a difficult year.

He walks up to their door alone, a cap pushed down on his head and sunglasses covering his eyes to prevent anybody from recognising him as a very not-dead Oliver Queen and he knocks.

“I’ll get it.”

The most wonderful of sounds. His son’s voice. It’s beginning to break. How could he have missed such an important part of his son’s life? He should have been there. He should have had an entire extra year. He should have had an entire childhood of memories of William, but he has come to terms with missing out on that.

The lock rattles, the door squeaks open and- _there_.

_His son_.

So much taller, his face so much older. His eyes so much sadder. Both of them freeze.

“Dad?” Oliver’s hear skips a beat, even if William’s voice is small and broken as he says it, hearing that word is like a breath of new life into Oliver’s lungs. And he has become something of an authority on breaths of new life in recent weeks.

“William.” He chokes out around the lump in his throat. Before he can think better of it, he is lunging forwards and enveloping his son in a hug, tears streaming down his face.

“Dad?” William asks again.

“I’ve missed you so much, Kiddo.” Oliver sobs.

“But… you… you’re _dead_. You _died_. How is this… how are you… how are you _alive_?”

Oliver leans back, taking in his son’s face properly for the first time in a year. He brushes his finger over Will’s cheek, moving up to his forehead where he catches a strand of overgrown hair and pushes it back. “I’m fine. I’m all fine now. I- Will, I did die. I died but then a lot of things happened and I’m okay now. I’m home. And I’m here to bring you home with me too. We both miss you so much, and it’s finally safe-”

“William? Who’s at the door?” Irene’s voice interrupts. William is still stunned, he clearly does not know what to say and Oliver hears Frank mumbling before the sound of his footsteps comes.

“William?” William’s grandfather calls, “Who is it?” and then Frank appears in the hallway, and jumps back at the sight before him. “Oliver?” he says.

“Hello, Mister Clayton.” Oliver nods a greeting.

“Oliver?” Irene says, “Oliver who?” and then all four of them are standing in the entrance of the Clayton household. One nervous and the other three in shock.

*************************

“Would you mind if I come in?” Oliver asks, even though he is technically already inside. The only response that he receives are the nods of two people who have no idea what is happening. The four of them make their way into the living room. Oliver has not been there before but he cannot imagine that William likes it much. It is somewhat outdated as the homes of people over a certain age can tend to be, but it is still quite nice. Though Oliver does notice a distinct lack of any technology. He hopes that William has at least a games console in his own room.

The Claytons take up what must be their own regular seats and Oliver ends up on a small sofa, hoping that William will join him. William, however, remains standing, looking at Oliver like he has seen a ghost. In fairness, to them it must seem like they have.

“So… uh… first things first, I suppose I should explain how I’m… here.” He is referring both to his presence in their house and his presence… on Earth. Alive. “Well, I’m not dead. Obviously.” He starts, “It’s a very long story and it’s hard to believe but, well, you live in Central City. Unbelievable things happen around here all the time.

“I did die. December ninth, I was killed on Earth Thirty-Eight, defending it from the Anti-Monitor’s army whilst the Universe was being evacuated. In the end, I was the last line of defence and there were just too many of them, so they won.” He takes a deep breath, “John and Mia and an old friend of mine called John Constantine decided to try and save me. Constantine had done it for Sara Lance before, so he was able to get the three of them to Purgatory to try and bring back my soul but there was a complication and instead of coming back, I let a spirit named Spectre inhabit my body because it was the only way that we would be able to defeat the Anti-Monitor. Which I did, and then Spectre left me and I… well, I didn’t die _again_ because I hadn’t really been alive, but I went back to being fully dead.

“I don’t know if I got lucky or if I finally deserved to catch a break or if somebody realised that my family didn’t deserve to have to go on without me, but the next thing I knew, I was waking up again with only John there to see it. I went home and Felicity and I decided that it would be safer for everybody if the world was left under the impression that I had died, so we made it seem that way.”

“Why didn’t you call me?” It is the first full sentence that William has managed.

“We did.” Oliver states, “We called you all the time after you left, but you didn’t answer and we figured that you were still too angry with us. I also called you the night that the Monitor came for me to say goodbye, but you still didn’t answer. And Felicity has attempted to make contact with your grandparents a few times since my resurrection, but hasn’t been able to get through to you and we felt that this news would be better in person, so we came here.” It is slightly underhanded, letting William know that Felicity has not been able to get past his grandparents, but Oliver is still rather angry about that fact.

“You tried to let me know?”

“Yeah.” He says softly, remembering adult-William’s worries about their lack of contact and his words about wanting them to try harder to be in his life.

William raises his voice, “Why didn’t you try harder?”

Oliver sighs, pain lancing through his heart at the hurt look on William’s face. “We wanted to, William, I promise you. The minute that you walked out of our apartment, we wanted to run after you. There are a lot of reasons that we didn’t. None of them are good enough, but they are the reasons behind the decisions that you made and we will have to talk about that soon. When I spoke with you and Mia in November, you were able to express some of your feelings about everything that happened and you told me what you would have wanted me to change, so I’m going to do my best to change those things going forwards. For now, I would just like to work out where we go from here and, if you want to, I would like to be able to bring you home with Felicity and I. For good.” He turns to the Claytons, letting them know that his last comment was for their benefit.

“You can’t honestly think that we’re going to let you take him back. After everything that you’ve put him through, after everything that you just told us. After you left him for almost a year and didn’t speak to him for that entire time do you really think that we’re going to trust him with you?” Frank spits.

“I know that I have made many mistakes and I can understand your reluctance but at this point, I truly believe that the safest place for William and for his future is at home with Felicity and I.” Oliver asserts, “But even more important than that, I think that William should get a choice in the matter. As far as I am concerned, it’s his decision.”

“William is a fourteen year old boy. He doesn’t know what he wants.” Irene says.

“I’m not a baby. I have a mind of my own. I have a right to make my own decisions. I have a right to be with my own father and my family if that’s what I want.” William yells.

“We have guardianship of you, William. You’re to stay with us until you’re eighteen.” Irene informs him.

“Actually, you don’t.” Oliver says, “We let you have temporary guardianship of him but until my death I was still his legal guardian as nobody ever signed the papers to change that. And as it was over two years ago that I made it so that William would go into Felicity’s care in the event of my death, he is currently supposed to be with her. We don’t want to take him away from you, we want to do whatever he is comfortable with. But we want to see our son, we want to have him home with us and we want to do it with your permission. But we are willing to go behind your backs if that is what William wants.”

Before his grandparents can respond to Oliver, William interjects, “I want to see you again. If you want me home, I want to try come home.”

Frank explodes, “You cannot go back to Star City, William! It is far too dangerous.”

“We don’t live in Star City anymore. We moved last May. It was supposed to be temporary. Somewhere for us to stay safe until a threat was dealt with but then I had to leave for the Crisis and when I got back, we decided to stay. We’re renovating right now, updating and extending the place but your room is already all set up, Will. Felicity fully moved us out of Star City last week so all of your things are there now.”

“Oh.” William says, clearly not expecting that.

“We meant it when we decided to make our lives safe for you to be in, William. We want to live normally.”

“Dad.” Will sobs, and then he throws himself onto the sofa next to Oliver and buries his head in his father’s chest.

“You can see him as often as you want.” Oliver assures the Claytons, “You can visit us or he can visit you and if he wants to come back to you, we won’t stop him. But he deserves to be with us.” He encircles William’s shoulders with his arms.

“I will come and visit.” William insists, “But I want to go home.”

Frank and Irene look at one another for a long moment before turning back and Irene says “If anything happens. If anything ever puts him in danger ever again, we will take him from you permanently. Even if it means telling the world that you are alive, we will do anything to keep him safe.”

“If I ever put him in danger again, I will hand him over willingly.”

*************************

“Dad.” William looks up at Oliver, “You mentioned seeing me in November with somebody called Mia. What were you talking about?”

Oliver smiles in that way that he only ever does when he is with Felicity or William, “That is another long story. The short of it is that a version of you and Mia from an alternate timeline in which I never came back and you never saw Felicity again was brought back in time from twenty-forty. We can talk about that later as well, but we have something much more important to talk about right now.” Oliver looks practically giddy. “Mister and Missus Clayton, would you mind if Felicity came inside now? She has been waiting in the car for us to get a little more settled.” They give their permission.

Oliver sends out a text to Felicity, telling her to start getting Mia out of the car. It will take her a few minutes to do so, Mia-wrangling is a very time consuming affair, but that will be just enough for him to explain.

He begins to lead William outside to their car, “William, do you remember that just before you left with your grandparents last year, we had to get blood tests done for you and Felicity after Stanley gassed us? And whilst you and I were saying goodbye, Felicity got a call from Doctor Schwartz with the results?” William nods, “Well, everything was absolutely fine as far as the poisoning was concerned, you would know if that hadn’t been the case, but Felicity’s results did flag up something else. We weren’t expecting it and it wasn’t exactly planned but it was something that we had talked about before my imprisonment and something that we both knew that we wanted eventually and it has made us very, very happy and we’re hoping that it will make you happy too-,” he is suddenly cut off as Felicity comes into sight.

William’s face splits into a huge grin and he runs forwards to where Felicity is bent over Mia’s car seat yelling, “Mom!”

“Will?” she has time to ask before she is practically bowled over by an enthusiastic fourteen year old.

“I’ve missed you so much, Mom.” William relaxes into her arms.

“I’ve missed you so much too, William.” Felicity begins to cry, finally having her son back in her arms is emotional enough, but to hear him call her ‘Mom’ after everything that has happened pushes her over the edge. “Sorry.” She wipes the water from William’s neck, “Hormones.” She only recently stopped breastfeeding and that, combined with the fact that she is starting to be _very_ late for her period, has made her far more weepy than usual.

Of course, Mia is not one to let herself go unnoticed for long so that is the precise moment that she chooses to let out a wail. William’s head flicks around so fast at the sound that Oliver briefly worries about whiplash.

“Oh.” Is all that comes from his mouth.

“It’s like I was saying, William,” Oliver continues, making his way over to the three of them, “It’s something that has made us happy and we hope that you will be happy too. Because William, you’re a big brother now. Meet your baby sister, Mia.”

“Oh.” William repeats, looking at the wriggling little girl in awe as Felicity pulls her from the car seat.

“Do you want to hold her?” Felicity asks, angling the baby towards William.

“Um…”

“Let’s get inside first.” Oliver says, seeing that his son needs a minute to process.

Going inside with a baby in tow brings the Claytons yet another shock. If they were not such hardy people, Oliver would worry about their hearts after the day that they have had. Once William is in the room, he ignores his grandparents in favour of sitting back down and looking at Felicity. Or, more accurately, looking at his sister, “Can I?” he asks, tentative.

“Here.” Felicity places Mia on William’s lap, the little girl sat upright and looking at her big brother. Oliver wraps his arm around Felicity’s waist, holding her as they both cry at the sight of their children together for the first time.

William tears his eyes away from Mia’s to meet Felicity’s tearful gaze, “Mom, she’s so beautiful. She looks a lot like you.” And then, Felicity has flown from Oliver’s arms in favour of holding her children in her own. Oliver is helpless but to go over to them and join in. This is home. It does not matter where they are, so long as they are together, they are home.

*************************

Unsurprisingly, the Claytons like Mia a whole lot more than they like Oliver and Felicity. They even take turns holding her and cooing at her. William decides that he does not want to waste one more moment away from his family, so they pack up everything that he wants to take with him and make a plan to visit again in two weekends. There are still a lot of things that need sorting, but that can be done from the comfort of their cabin.

William plays with Mia for their entire journey home, making sure that she is happy and entertained. He loves the cabin. He loves the peace and quiet that it offers, but he loves the tech that is there even more. They have a lot to talk about still, a lot of issues to find solutions to, but for those first few days, nothing can ruin the joy that the four of them have at being together at last.

**Author's Note:**

> I just love William so much.
> 
> I'm also on Twitter [@MagusLibera](https://twitter.com/MagusLibera).


End file.
